Water treatment facilities treat waste water to achieve one or more goals. For instance, a first goal may be to remove solids from the waste water. A primary treatment system may be devised to achieve this first goal. A second goal may be to break down organic components in the waste water. A secondary treatment system may be devised to receive effluent from the first system and to achieve the second goal. Accordingly, water treatment facilities tend to be developed serially with additional systems added downstream of one another to address the desired goals. Thus, overall facility cost and complexity grow quickly as additional water treatment goals are addressed. Further, added complexity inadvertently increases the chance of failure.
Nitrogen removal is one water treatment goal that has been increasingly addressed in recent decades. Consistent with the above discussion, nitrogen removal systems have increased facility cost and complexity with only marginal performance gains. The present concepts address cost, complexity, and/or performance for achieving desired water treatment goals.